


Wizarding Idioms, Insults and Expletives

by Bindweed



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Language, Wizarding Culture, background world building, out of control listing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-29 18:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15735018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bindweed/pseuds/Bindweed
Summary: A list of idioms, insults and expletives that the magical community might use much to the confusion of muggles. I started this list to help when writing my fanfic but it ended up with a life of its own. Some have been lifted from the book some are of my own invention.





	Wizarding Idioms, Insults and Expletives

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to know if anyone has any more...

• Mudblood  
• Creatures of dirt  
• Magic is might  
• Honestly, he’d mistake a cauldron for a cooking pot  
• Cat among the pixies  
• Balderdash  
• Blast  
• Fell off the back of a broom  
• Get off his high hippogriff  
• Hanged for a dragon as an egg  
• In for a knut, in for a galleon  
• I’m so hungry I could eat a hippogriff  
• In the name of Merlin  
• Merlin’s beard (pants etc.)  
• Going for a dragon ride  
• Well f*** me Merlin and all his house elves  
• No point crying over spilt potion  
• I wouldn’t come near you with a ten foot broom stick  
• Like bowtruckles on doxy eggs  
• Like some common goblin  
• Poisonous toad stools don’t change their spots  
• Working like house-elves  
• Galloping gorgons  
• Gulping gargoyles  
• Erumpent in the room  
• I could eat a hippogriff  
• Hold your hippogriffs  
• Time is Galleons  
• Yanking your wand  
• Wand of elder, never prosper  
• To have a hairy heart (based on wizard fairy tale)  
• Don’t count your owls before they are delivered  
• Ten a Knut (cheap)  
• It’s all Mermish to me  
• A hag pretending to be a veela  
• As tight-fisted as a goblin  
• As helpful as a centaur  
• Drunk as a leprechaun  
• You look like you’ve seen the Grim/Dementor  
• Cauldron calling the kettle black  
• Screeching like mandrakes  
• As safe as Gringotts  
• I heard it straight from the owls beak  
• Looking in the eye of a hippogriff  
• Don’t get your wand in a knot  
• A sickle for your thoughts  
• Harmless as a flobberworm  
• As blind as a muggle  
• Proud as a hippogriff  
• Vain as a fairy  
• Stupid as a troll  
• Thick skinned as a troll  
• It’s nothing a charm won’t fix  
• The fire’s alight but the potion’s not bubbling  
• The fires lit but the cauldrons empty  
• He’s his own boggart  
• He’d be rejected by the (Hogwarts) Sorting Hat  
• Like a salamander in a library  
• A nifflers nature (always after gold/money)  
• He looks like a house elf presented with clothes  
• Ministry Man  
• He’s following the Hinkypunk  
• I heard it on the hearth (gossiping over floo network)  
• Full moon madness  
• Like a dragon sitting on eggs  
• In need of a bezoar  
• A time-turner will only leave you dizzy (don’t dwell on the past)  
• Troll jobs (unpleasant/easy jobs)  
• He’s a mutterer (someone who can’t do non-verbal magic)  
• He’s stuck on a Silver Arrow (old broomstick)  
• With all the grace of a bludger  
• Addlepated (drunk/confused)  
• Completely stupefied (drunk)  
• I got splinched last night (drunk)  
• I’m splinched over it (undecided)  
• You’d think he’d discovered the sixth exception to Gamp’s Law (transfiguration law, 5 exceptions)  
• To be Merlin’s descendant (magical genius)  
• Wand stuck up his ass  
• He never outgrew accidental magic  
• Like a squib at Hogwarts (out their depth)  
• Beast, being or spirit? (what was that?/something weird)  
• Reborn from the ashes (like a phoenix)  
• The curse of the seer (your predictions not being listened too)  
• Terror of the tea leaves (fear for the future)  
• Like a werewolf at a dinner party  
• Inviting pixies (inviting trouble)  
• Like Godric Gryffindor/Helga Hufflepuff/Salazar Slytherin/Rowena Ravenclaw  
• As useful as a thin bottomed cauldron  
• Been caught by the venomous tentacula  
• Living with thestrals (grief/pain)  
• Half a stir in the wrong direction can’t be undone (small action, big consequences)  
• Well stick me with a quill  
• Can’t see beyond the brim of his hat  
• Classic black cloak  
• Outwitted the sphinx  
• Barrel full of pixies (trouble)  
• Creeping goblins (sneaky/surprise)  
• Hogging hag  
• Erumpent horn storeroom (volatile/explosive)  
• Like mermaid song, beautiful in the right setting  
• Well, werewolves don't declare themselves (people don't reveal secrets/dangerous side)  
• A midnight duel (euphemism)  
• I wouldn't touch it with dragon hide gloves  
• There's no use blaming your wand  
• Shaking broom (old, useless)  
• Orbsucker  
• Arsegoblin  
• Sleazy selkie  
• Don't fail me now old oracles  
• Tripping over his cloak


End file.
